


The Reversal

by mute90



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Grief, Time Travel, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-12 16:42:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21479560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mute90/pseuds/mute90
Summary: Written for Butterfly Flest 2019. Prompt: “What if Harry finds an unbroken Time Turner minutes after Sirius falls through the veil?”
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15
Collections: HP Butterfly Fest 2019





	The Reversal

Harry screamed in rage as the door snapped shut behind Bellatrix. The one he'd crashed through bounced off the wall and swung closed behind him. He was alone in the dim room with just his ragged breathing, his entire body shaking. 

The doors spun. 

When they stopped, he opened the first door and, of course, there was no Bellatrix. There was the pathway to the Hall of Prophecy and he backed away quickly, face twisting into disgust. He pushed open the next door and the next, his shaking increasing with each useless and empty room.

But he opened one more door.

Glass shards littered the floor. Odd sand glinted in the light. It was the time room, apparently abandoned by the Death Eater with the deformed head. It lay silent, and Harry stepped in. He let the door close behind him and fell to his knees among the glass and sand, hand sliding over the floor, picking up and discarding broken pieces until he could close his fist around something whole. 

X

Harry’s only warning was that even Luna looked shocked as she stared over his shoulder.

A body slammed into his

Harry hit the forest floor and the full weight of another person held him down while a fist slammed into the side of his head. Another swung at his cheek. Knees dug into his stomach and there was shouting and a scream. He saw Ron’s bright red hair and then the person was being dragged off him, kicking as he was pulled away. 

Ron held them around the waist and Neville shoved at their chest. Ginny was only a foot away with her wand out. Hermione was moaning somewhere behind him: “Oh. Oh, _ no _.”

Harry pushed himself to his feet and stared across at the figure still struggling to get to him, vicious anger in his eyes.

The person looked exactly like him.

X

He looked like a madman, Harry knew, still clawing at Ron’s arm and glaring at that face across from him. It didn’t matter. A cold calm had descended over him as he traveled back through time and then to Dumbledore’s office with floo powder. But the calm had been ripped away when he’d found them in the forest clearing.

It was that face. That stupid, reckless face. And his rage took over, burned away his reason and purpose and left nothing but a desire to hurt.

“Harry!” he heard them calling, but it was Luna who stepped into his line of sight and made him freeze. Luna was looking back at him with unnaturally large eyes. Looking around her, he saw Hermione conscious and breathing easily, if a little quick. Ginny stood on an unbroken ankle. Ron had enough sense left to restrain him. Neville’s face was pale instead of broken and bloody.

Ginny crossed her arms over her chest, chin raised. “It went bad, didn’t it?”

Harry relaxed in Ron’s hold, huffing. “Sure, Ginny, it went bad.”

That face came closer, his own face. “Sirius?” it asked.

“Sirius isn’t there,” Harry spat. “Not yet.” His hand curled into a fist, and he felt Ron’s restraining arms tighten around him.

The other one shook his head in denial. “I saw him.”

“You saw what Voldemort wanted you to see,” Harry corrected. “It was a trap, and you fell for it.”

“Kreacher said he was missing.”

“Kreacher lied!” Harry roared, just figuring that out himself. For some reason, Kreacher had lied, had helped Voldemort’s plan.

And his rage grew, bright burning flames that licked at the edges of his vision.

The other him came even closer, which was quite brave of him considering the circumstances. Quite stupid. “What happened then?” he asked.

Harry swallowed down the immediate accusation, the detailed account of everything that had gone wrong. Instead, he looked into his own eyes - and he lied. "They all died," he said. Watching the look of horror cross his own face, he ruthlessly continued. “You were the only one left. You always are, aren't you?”

The other one stumbled back a step and maybe - just maybe - he’d learned his lesson.

X

Time changed that night, unknown to everyone except a group of teenagers in the forest. 

In five hours, Harry would go back in time and do the same things, spread the same story, as his future self. Sirius Black would live. Harry Potter, this alternative version of him would go on. He’d have nightmares of glass orbs with ghostly faces and of everyone he loved walking up a dais and through a veil, ignoring him as he screamed their names. 

He wouldn’t sleep much.

Time changed that night - for better or worse.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Butterfly Flest 2019. Prompt: “What if Harry finds an unbroken Time Turner minutes after Sirius falls through the veil?”
> 
> My immediate answer to that question was 'Harry would beat the crap out of himself.' He'd be furious and traumatized. Without Dumbledore to make some sense of things, I wonder how long that would last.


End file.
